Christmas is here again

Edgar Moyana Christian Entertainment
AS the month of December steadily approaches many from the Christian community across the world will be keeping their eyes on the calendar as they wait patiently for Christmas Day when they celebrate Christ’s birthday. Christmas is a holiday that many associate with merry-making and worship. It is that time of the year when people across the world are in a festive mood, and their consumption habits are inflated by the season’s excitement which is normally punctuated by partying and dining among families and friends.

Hence people overspend through buying expensive groceries, while others prefer to travel in order to strengthen friendly and family bonds.

Generally speaking, Christmas celebrates Christ’s birthday, and those who are enthusiastic about the holiday take the time to visit their churches to pray, thanking God for the gift of His son.

To encourage this worship mood, Christmas songs are sung in churches while Christmas carols are played both on radio and television stations across the Christian world.

At around this time many may possibly remember hearing Christmas songs on their radio and television sets. There are many different Christmas songs and among those popular include “Jingle Bells”, “Joy to the World”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “O Holy Night” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”.

The Christmas mood across the world is also fanned through social networking sites where people from distant geographical locations encourage each other in scriptures by way of exchanging graphic messages on Christmas.

Part of Christmas celebrations includes exchanging of Christmas gifts and cards. This is done to show love and affection for one another among families and friends.

In any part of the world where Christmas is observed, it is a time where many, for a short while, seem to forget about life’s troubles and focus on Christ’s birth and its significance in their lives.

In Zimbabwe, Harare in particular, to show how much Christmas is valued, one only needs to see the amount of thorough preparation by households, companies and shops for Christmas.

Just a few minutes’ walk in Harare’s First Street area of the Central Business District, one notices colourful Christmas lights that line the street.

Even in shops one notices colourful and very beautiful Christmas decorations put up with a high level of expertise, sophistication and artistry.

Most of these decorations are basically designed to catch the eye of passers-by. Grocery, furniture and fashion shops among others use these to attract customers with the hope of making increased sales during Christmas.

Looking at all these preparations for Christmas, one also notices that indeed Christmas occupies a special place in people’s hearts.

But it is important to analyse the whole concept of Christmas much deeper and identify exactly which lessons people are to learn about the holiday.

To start with, the Bible indeed teaches about how Jesus was born to His earthly parents, namely Mary and Joseph, in Bethlehem, Matthew 2:1.

As the story of His birth is narrated in the New Testament the reader cannot fail to notice that the Bible is silent on the exact date when Jesus was born.

Neither do we read anywhere in the Bible where Jesus Himself commanded His disciples to celebrate His birthday.

The obvious implication of this is that Jesus never intended that the world should celebrate His birth or observe it as a holiday.

While it is clearly mentioned in the Bible that Jesus observed holy days such as the Sabbath and the Passover with His disciples, and even commanded them to continue their observance until the end of time (John 14:15, Luke 22:19) there is no instruction by Christ to the effect that they should observe Christmas.

Although people may continue with habits of merry-making around Christmas, these should have nothing to do with Jesus being born on December 25, as is taught in today’s churches.

This is, of course, not to say that each time people observe or celebrate Christmas, they are committing a sin for according to the Bible to sin is breaking the law of God.

Hence for this reason there is need for Christians to pray for safe travelling, and for stronger and lasting friendly and family bonds when they visit each other this Christmas.